Opened their first manufactured goods and clothing shop on 15 April 1852 in Stralsund. This represented the beginnings of the Wertheim department store chain. In 1885 the Wertheim brothers set up a general partnership and moved to Berlin, where they built what was then Europe’s biggest department store on Leipziger Strasse. In Stralsund the brothers moved several times before buying the land and buildings on Ossenreyerstrasse 8 to 10, where they built a large department store that opened in 1903. Shortage of space led to the construction of an extension, which was completed in 1928. After the Nazis took power, all the Wertheim stores in Germany were “Aryanised” in 1937. The building continued to be used as a department store, and has survived complete with its atrium.
Wertheim department store on Ossenreyerstrasse.
